REVIVAL BRINGS A GREAT AWAKENING

Revival Brings a Great Awakening!

Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23

Welcome back,

Prayer

Yesterday we began the revival by preaching from the Old Testament Book of Jonah.

Many people know the story of Jonah because the of the big fish that God had swallowed him. Many do not know that Jonah is a story of God reviving His servant and the great city of Nineveh. We found three truths to a revival beginning with us: Do you remember them:

First, we must get real with ourselves.

Second, we must get right with God

Then third, we must get up and go to do what God is calling us to do.

Well, this evening I bring to you a message of how REVIVAL BRINGS A GREAT AWAKENING.

If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, open it with me to Ephesians chapter 1. If you are unfamiliar to where the book of Ephesians is, you can find it by finding 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians then the book of Ephesians.

Ephesians Chapter 1

The author of this letter is none other than the Apostle Paul and he is writing to believers whose church is in Ephesus. Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of modern-day Turkey. Paul established the church during his third missionary journey. He was also the pastor for some three years. After Paul left, he appointed Timothy as the pastor. He has a certain amount of stake in this church.

If you are there in Ephesians Chapter 1 begin reading with me from the verse 15. This is the Word of God and it begins like this:

“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

This is Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus. They were already believers, and we know this because of how he describes them in verse 1 he writes “To the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ.”

Paul goes on to say in verse 15 that he acknowledges their strong faith in Christ Jesus. He also states that that he has heard of how the believers are fulfilling the great commandments to love God and to love people.

So, we must answer the question; why is this former pastor, the Apostle Paul writing and praying that the believers, in the church would have wisdom, revelation, perception, and to be enlightened of the Lord?

Well, it appears that Paul is concerned that the believers were not experiencing the power of God in their lives.

DID YOU CATCH THAT?

Illustration of Cathy not seeing God’s miracles.

Paul writes that although they are doing somethings right, there seems to be something missing. He knows, just as I know, that we cannot change that. Only God can change that in a person’s life. Paul also knows that if a person is going to have a deep change in their live that they must not only have the knowledge of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, but that one also must have experienced the power of God in their lives.

We get a glimpse of what is happening within the church in chapter 4 verse 17 when Paul states “You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is them and because of the hardening of their hearts.”

Notice with me that the church in Ephesus is the first church mentioned of the seven mentioned Revelation chapter 2. Jesus accuses the church of losing their first love. In other words, their focus was on everything else, but Jesus Christ and when a people lose focus on Christ, not only do they lose their first love, but they fail to experience God and often become worldlier.

It is no different than us today.

When we become more focused on other things rather than Christ, we lose Christ as our first love.

This revival is all about seeking the God who can not only revive us, but bring revival to His church, and your communities.

We need revival so that we can have that strong relationship with Christ, so that we can experience God in a whole new way. So that we don’t lose focus on what is most important, Christ, because we are seeing this problem with believers more and more.

So, in effect this prayer might be for the saints that made up the church in Ephesus, but it is also a prayer for us today. That the church today we may see revival or as Paul describes it as becoming enlightened.

WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR TAKE HOME TRUTH:

TRUE REVIVAL COMES WHEN WE CHANGE OUR FOCUS FROM US TO GOD.

The problem is that we come into the world alienated from God, we begin life in spiritual darkness. We are more used to the here and now than we are of the future and eternity. The reason we often need revival is because our focus often changes from God to us.

We as broken people often go back to what we are used to. We need to be revived because revival changes our focus back to God and that is what we see Paul writing about here.

There is a song that you might be familiar with called “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.” It is a plea for God to do what we cannot do ourselves. If our eyes are ever going to be opened to the wonders of God, the glory of God, the truth of God, then God is going to have to open them. This is one of our greatest needs in a revival is for God to open the eyes of our hearts to see the truth and experience His power in our lives.

The truth is we have the power to remove ourselves from God’s presence, but we don’t have the power to enter back into His presence, only God can grant that. We can seek it, we can seek forgiveness, but God has been and always will be the grantor.

Paul prays for the church that the believers will have a new perception of their minds which will enlighten them.

To enlighten means to explain or make clear. It can also mean to tell or inform. The Greek word Paul uses for enlighten, means to shine, to illuminate, to bring to light, to gain spiritual light so that we can be awakened to the truths that God wants us to understand.

Notice with me that Paul was not asking God to give the believers what they did not have, but instead to be enlighten- to be awakened to what the God has already given them.

We find that the Apostle Paul prays to God for three truths that will bring a great awakening to the people of God.

A great awakening changes our focus from us to God.

FIRST WE MUST BE ENLIGHTENED TO THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING.

Verse 18. Paul is praying that “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling”

Hope is a word that has worldly meaning such as a desire of some good with the expectation of obtaining it, for example the food looks good, I hope it tastes good. However, this is not the hope that Paul is speaking of a Biblical hope that is very different than worldly hope.

Biblical hope is the absolute certainty, the very confidence that what God has promised will happen.

The hope that Paul is speaking of is the assurance of eternal life which has come through the birth, life, death and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ.

Paul described the unbelievers in Chapter 4 as their thoughts are not about God, they are darkened in their understanding of God, they are excluded from the life of God, they have hardened hearts because of the ignorance of God.

What Paul is describing is spiritual blindness.

Can I ask you this question? Are you spiritually blind?

Listen folks this blindness controls all thoughts and action. These are people who live for themselves, do for themselves and in the end, there is no hope found in eternity for them.

Have you ever noticed how many hopeless people there are around you?

You know, when you see people falling for schemes and tricks, what is really happening is that somebody is playing on their hopes. They feel hopeless, and somebody is offering them the silver lining, the magic potion, and they go for it in droves.

I mentioned earlier that many people are focused on the here and now rather than their future and eternity. A lot of people believe that eternity will work itself out when they get there, but sadly it is a false religion.

Folks, we need to understand that our spiritual future is dependent on the promises that God has made to us and that should give us the strength and courage to live in the present.

Paul is praying that the believers would know the hope of His calling and in that process, they would have certain hope based on God’s eternal choice for them and us today. And here is the thing- people cannot live a believer’s life without the hope given to us through Christ.

And Paul’s prayer is that they would be enlightened to know the hope that God has given to us. He knows that the world is full of hopeless people. He also knows that for believers to be effective in the world they must be filled with hope.

The truth is, in today's world: we need hope.

When we look at ourselves, when we look at the church, when we look at our communities, when we look at our world there is so much hopelessness. God through the Holy Spirit grounds us in this hope of our calling.

God has called us out of darkness to the light. God has called us from bondage to freedom, from unrighteousness to righteousness.

He has called us from the dominion of Satan into the glorious dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has called us from the world to become the children of God.

There is the very reason for us, who are in that calling to be hopeful in this world.

In chapter 2 Paul describes the believers like this verse 12 “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

Listen, but now we have hope and its Paul’s prayer that the people of God to absolutely know the hope of their calling and to be illuminated because of it.

The hope is the absolute certainty of our destination after this life into eternity because of Jesus’ redemption work on the cross. This also refers to the eternal destiny of Born-again believers. The Bible tells us in Romans 8:29 that it is God’s plan for each of us to be conformed to the image of His Son. When you are enlightened to this truth it will change your life.

The calling involves everything that God has done and is going to do and has promised us through His Word that not only brings us to salvation but also through salvation. To make it simple what Paul has said to the church in Ephesus is this; I have just told you of your calling and what God has done for you. Now you need to understand it in a deeper level in your heart/mind.

God has called us out of the darkness into his marvelous light and in doing so He, God has given us a real and substantial hope in the fallen world that we live in. When we realize this, it will be life changing.

THE FIRST TRUTH OF CHANGING OUR FOCUS TO GOD IS TO BE ENLIGHTENED TO THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING.

THE SECOND TRUTH IS TO BE ENLIGHTENED TO THE GLORIOUS RICHES OF HIS INHERITANCE.

This is the second area of our faith that needs to be illuminated the glorious riches of His inheritance. Look back at verse 18 again: “ “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling what are the riches of His glory of inheritance in the saints.”

Paul has previously spoken of the glory of God in the previous verse 6 for example He writes “to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved.”

Then in verse 12 he says: “that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

Verse 1:14 “who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Then in 1:17 “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him”

Once we understand the calling of His hope we can then be focused on the God’s glory. It is the Glory of God’s inheritance that Paul wants the believers to need, illuminate and appreciate it.

Think of it this way the glory of God’s inheritance becomes our inheritance. Some believe that we receive the inheritance when we pass from this life to eternity, 1 Peter 1:4 refers to the inheritance that is reserved for us in heaven.

In other words, God bestows the inheritance upon His children. On the other hand, others say that we are the inheritance to God. So, God is the one who receives the inheritance.

When the Old Testament teaches of inheritance, it teaches that God’s people were HIS inheritance. However, to best illustrate what The Apostle Paul is saying we have to go back to verses 11- 14 look there with me “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Notice that in verse 11 we received an inheritance through Jesus- verse 14 says that God the Holy Spirit seals the deal and that He is the down payment of our inheritance. So, we can easily deduce that Paul is speaking literally and figuratively that we are the ones who will receive the inheritance.

Our gracious God wants all believers to know that there are greater things waiting for us down the road.

The Bible tells us in Romans 8:17 that believers are heirs to the throne of God and joint heirs with Jesus. Because of this we are the beneficiaries of God’s best blessings in this life. We are also the heirs of a heavenly home someday, where we will spend eternity with the God Who loved us and saved us for His Own glory.

And listen folks it takes the power of Spirit of God in our lives to reveal this eternal truth to us for us to be enlightened and understand all that we have in Jesus.

So here is what we need to see today through the words of Paul. He is speaking to the believers of the riches that have been given to them by God in Jesus Christ — whether it's the riches of being chosen as God's inheritance or whether it's the riches of being given an inheritance by God, we have been given a free gift of mercy, grace, and riches from God beyond all comparison.

The Apostle Paul wants them and all who read this letter to be enlightened to these riches of inheritance.

FIRST, WE ARE TO BE ENLIGHTENED TO THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING.

SECOND, WE ARE TO BE ENLIGHTENED TO THE GLORIOUS RICHES OF HIS INHERITANCE.

THEN THIRD TRUTH OF CHANGING OUR FOCUS TO GOD IS BE ENLIGHTENED TO THE GREATNESS OF HIS POWER.

Look at verse 18-19 with me: Paul prays that: “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of His glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His might power.”

I believe that it is hard for us to comprehend the greatness of the power of God. We see God do little things such as answer a small prayer and we are amazed; we are blown away by it. Last night we were on the lake, and we watched the sky opened in beautiful color. Creation itself is amazing, but too many have just become a custom to it.

We read that Jesus healed people of their sin, sicknesses, and ailments and we are often underwhelmed. But when we see it in our lives often, we are beyond words. This is true because of the weaknesses with us. If we are honest about it; when we look at ourselves, we see weakness. Often our weakness can be very apparent to us, and it seems that it can be no match for the challenges of life that we face.

We look out in this vast world, and we see it in the sinfulness that it is, and it is a world filled with troubles — filled with troubles so far beyond the scale that we cannot do anything individually or even collectively about them.

We see this weakness in Jonah, His weakness was to go preach to the Ninevites who were the enemy of his people the Israelites.

Now we see that the weakness of the church in Ephesus is having the knowledge and wisdom of the hope of God’s calling, of the inheritance and of God’s great power.

And if we are honest with ourselves, these are the same weaknesses that we have today.

We live in a weak, sinful world, Jesus said that we are going to have tribulation in our lives, but we can get though it because of the power of God in our lives, that resides within us. And the Apostle Paul is addressing this issue in verses 20-24, He is telling the church about the great power of God and that it is that same power that is at work in our lives is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, seated Him at the right hand of the Father who made Jesus above all in all and is the head of the Church.

Folks that is God’s great power!

Paul uses three different words to describe the great power of God.

First is the word power – He uses this Power twice First is the Greek word “Dunamis”. This is the word which gives us our English words “dynamite and dynamo”. It refers to “inherent power residing in a thing by virtue of its very nature”.

Paul tells us that this power is “exceedingly great”.

Then uses the word power again but in a different context this speaks of God’s great power and strength.

Specifically the power that God used as He raised Jesus from the dead, seating Him at the right hand of the Father and putting Him as the head of all things including the Church.

Both of the uses of the word power teaches us that it is more power than we will ever need or could ever want. This power is given to those who believe. This is power that only the child of God has.

The lost person cannot know this power, but it is given to us in great abundance when we come to Jesus through faith.

The second word Working of His mighty Power– In the Greek context it refers to “energy”. It speaks of the energizing power of the Holy Spirit within us that enables us to live for Jesus’ day by day. As the Lord works within us, He gives us the energy to live for the Lord.

Third word Paul uses is Mighty – This is the word speaks of “ability, force and strength”. The power of God within our lives gives us supernatural spiritual ability, force and strength. God enables us to do things that would be impossible for the natural man.

The Spirit of God gives us the ability to have dominion over our lives. We have the power to live for God.

So why is this so important?

It is important because we are always asking the Lord for strength and power. But did you notice that Paul did not pray that they would be given power? Because he knew that they already had all the power they would ever need. They just didn’t realize it.

You know something we don’t realize that we possess it as well.

We pray for strength all the time. I am continually praying for God to strengthen people in times of trial, we pray for power to witness, but the Bible says that we already possess a Gospel that is the power of God, Rom. 1:16. We pray for strength to endure sufferings, when God has already promised us all the power we need, 2 Cor. 4:7.

We pray for power to do the will of God, when that power has already been given to us, Phil. 2:13.

2000 years later we are no different than the believers that Paul is writing to.

Here is the truth all the power we need was given to us when we were saved by the grace of God, that’s what the Bible tells us in 2 Peter 1:3 listen to these words “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

Back in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 Paul; says “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us”

It’s all right here. All we need to do is exercise it. When we are hit with the craziness of life remember that it is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead that is at work in you to make you more like Christ.

For each of us to have revival today we must recognize that we have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead within us to lift us up and it is helps us to be in Christ likeness. Listen folks, God is working out His plan for each of us with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

To change our focus from us to God we must live a life as enlightened people of the HOPE OF HIS CALLING, TO THE GLORIOUS RICHES OF HIS INHERITANCE AND TO THE GREATNESS OF HIS POWER WITHIN US.

Invitation